Science/Nature

Image copyright NASA Image caption The IceCube smallsat was designed to study Earth, but upcoming missions would be despatched to other planetary bodies Nasa is planning a series of small satellite missions that could open up new ways of exploring the Solar System. James Green, head of planetary science at Nasa, told BBC News that […]

President Donald Trump joked that Nasa could send the US Congress to Mars as he signed a bill that guaranteed funding for the space agency for the next financial year. The bill includes money to go towards a manned mission to Mars, Nasa’s next big goal. Despite this, the Nasa budget fell slightly, from $19.5bn […]

Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic, has taken the decision to remove the horns from its white rhinos for their safety. Rhino poaching has reached a crisis point after a white rhino was killed for its horn at a zoo in France in early March. Dehorning is not painful to the rhino as there’s […]

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption At least six provinces have reported human cases of H7N9 influenza this year, according to Chinese state media A change in just a single genetic “letter” of the flu virus allows bird flu to pass to humans, according to scientists. Monitoring birds for viruses that carry the change could […]

Image copyright ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM Image caption A wide range of changes were observed on Comet 67P The comet visited by the Rosetta spacecraft is constantly being re-shaped, sometimes in dramatic fashion. It witnessed the collapse of entire cliffs at two locations on Comet 67P, events that were probably driven by exposure to sunlight. The European probe […]

Media captionSensing the magnetism of rocks from orbit is very challenging It is the best depiction yet of the magnetism retained in Earth’s rocks, as viewed from space. The map was constructed using data from Europe’s current Swarm mission, combined with legacy information from a forerunner satellite called Champ. Variations as small as 250km across […]

Image copyright EPA Image caption The Ariane 5 rocket during a previous launch The launch of a French rocket from a space centre in French Guiana has been delayed after workers erected barricades as part of a labour dispute. The Ariane 5 rocket was due to take a South Korean satellite and a Brazilian satellite […]

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption MPs are calling for greater protection for ancient woodland, including an inventory The amount of new woodland created in England last year amounts to under 700 hectares, an area little bigger than London’s Olympic Park. This falls far short of yearly targets needed to plant 11 million trees by […]

Image copyright NOAA Image caption This map shows the global temperature departures from the long-term average in January this year In the atmosphere, the seas and around the poles, climate change is reaching disturbing new levels across the Earth. That’s according to a detailed global analysis from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). It says that […]

Image copyright EQUINOX GRAPHICS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY The Large Hadron Collider has discovered new sub-atomic particles that could help to explain how the centres of atoms are held together. The particles are all different forms of the so-called Omega-c baryon, whose existence was confirmed in 1994. Physicists had always believed the various types existed but had […]

The SpaceX Dragon capsule returns to Earth with a full load of science samples after its mission to the International Space Station. The capsule left the station after being released by astronauts Thomas Pesquet (of France) and Shane Kimbrough (of NASA) using a robotic arm. It’s equipped with a heat shield that allows cargo to […]